Kemi Badenoch warns there is no 'cost-free option' to solving the border ... trends now
Cabinet Minister Kemi Badenoch warned that there was no 'cost-free' solution to the migrant crisis today as the first failed asylum seeker arrived in Rwanda with £3,000 of taxpayers' money in his pocket.
The unnamed man was sent to Kigali on a commercial flight last night under a voluntary scheme that is separate to the Government's new forced deportation scheme that is due to start in the summer.
Business and Trade Secretary Mrs Badenoch said that the man's decision to go to Rwanda of his own volition showed the East African nation was safe and should be 'trumpeted'.
Critics questioned the cost of the scheme, with one Tory telling Politico's Playbook: 'At the rate we're paying migrants in cash to leave we'll need a new pledge to ''stop the notes''.'
But Ms Badenoch hit back, telling Times Radio: 'If we were not sending people there, even at this minimal cost, I would be accused, for example, of the very high costs of keeping people in this country.
'There is no cost free option here....Assuming that policing our borders can be done for no money whatsoever is, it's just not serious. It's going to cost us something, whatever it is we do.'
She also echoed other ministers this week, who said that a row with Ireland over migrants heading across the Northern Ireland border showed that the deportation law was acting as a deterrent already.
Business and Trade Secretary Mrs Badenoch said that the man's decision to go to Rwanda of his own volition showed the East African nation was safe and should be 'trumpeted'.
The Hope Hostel in Rwanda (pictured) is one of the locations migrants will be sent to
Rishi Sunak wants to relocate thousands of failed asylum seeker to the third country
The migrant, whose name is unknown, was flown out of the UK yesterday evening and arrived in Kigali.
He was put on a commercial flight and given around £3,000 from the British taxpayer to help relocate under the terms of a deal with Rwanda.
It marks the first time the government has relocated a failed asylum seeker to a third country.
The man's attempt to stay in Britain was rejected at the end of 2023, before he accepted the offer to start a new life in the central African nation.
A source told The Sun:
